It’s all about being powerful without apologising for it, she tells Jessica Duchen in Independent, Wednesday 3 February 2016.

When Marin Alsop stepped on to the podium to conduct the Last Night of the Proms in 2013, surrounded by pink balloons, the heady applause that greeted her masked the gentle cracking of a glass ceiling. She was the first woman ever to wield the baton over the highest-profile event in the UK’s musical calendar. Last summer she did it again.

—

She is director of the graduate conducting programme at Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute in the US, and of course teaches both men and women. But whenever she takes an all-female class, she declares, she thinks it likely that the main issue will be power. “When I have a class of all men, it’s very rarely about power, but more usually about problems with connection. That’s a gross generalisation, of course. But I’d bet, from my experience, that the biggest challenge for women would be about how to deliver a gesture that elicits a powerful sound without any kind of apology, and without any kind of associated negative reaction from the musicians.”

This is the link to the full article.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/features/how-marin-alsops-classes-for-young-women-conductors-are-changing-the-face-of-the-profession-a6848966.html

This article in The Strad, a magazine for Stringers, gives wonderful insight into the relationship between a member of the orchestra and maestro Herbert von Karajan of the Berlin Philharmonic.

http://www.thestrad.com/cpt-latests/former-berlin-philharmonic-concertmaster-thomas-brandis-on-working-with-herbert-von-karajan/

The Grainger Wind Symphony has been invited to perform at the Australian National Band and Orchestra Clinic, a conference held in Melbourne in 2014. Our concert is on Sunday 14 September starting at 6.00pm at James Tartoulis Auditorium, Mehtodist Ladies College, Barkers Road, Kew. The cost is $20 for adult.

The program is a balance of advanced works and works accessible to school concert bands.  Three works are by Australian composers – Scott Cameron, Ralph Hultgren and Jodie Blackshaw.

Here is a Facebook post that explains how Dudamel conducts from memory. Enjoy this joke.

Gustavo Dudamel’s secret in Classical Starlight [www.keepvid.com].mp4

Find out more about Gustavo Dudamel by searching for him on Google or your favourite search engine. He is from Argentina and a product of El Sistema. he is currently the Music Director of San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.

I read this article posted on Facebook 22 December 2013. It resonated with me as it is about advice given to students at school career nights. Blake Morgan described what he said, even though he did intend to say what he said. We can all encourage our students to think this way about their career.

“I said I’d bet they were already hearing the murmurs from countless voices about how pursuing art or music isn’t practical. It isn’t realistic. That maybe it isn’t even a worthy pursuit. Or possible.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/blake-morgan/post_6463_b_4461936.html?utm_hp_ref=arts&ir=Arts

Teachers are invited to be full participants in a Conducting Workshop culminating in a videoed workshop conducting the Boroondara Symphonic Band. Clinician Roland Yeung will give three lessons/classes in preparation. New and experienced conductors welcome. Conductors will prepare one of two scores applying conventional patterns and gestures based on the Saito Conducting Method. This is one of a series of workshops offered in short programs for the convenience of busy musicians.

We welcome you to the coming concert of the Grainger Wind Symphony on Saturday night, 1 December 2012 starting at 8pm at St Stephens Anglican Church, Church Street Richmond, Melbourne. The Grainger Wind Symphony welcomes four soloists: Wendy Howes soprano vocal, Kevin Kelley baritone vocal, Jason Xanthoudakis clarinet solo and Penny Latham our 2013 Young Player Scholarship winner.

The program include overtures to Verdi’s Nabucco and Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, Verdi’s Triumphal March and Ballet, The Magic of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Selections from Les Miserable, Fantasia on themes from Rigoletto and songs by Puccini, Bizet and Mozart.

More information at www.graingerwindsymphony.asn.au

Making a video of your conducting is one of the most valuable tools for your professional development. Indeed teaching or public presentation would benefit from this as well as for conductor education. It is confronting to see oneself. “Do I look really like that!” “Is that how I sound!” “Gee I look bored.” These are some of the initial comments I hear often. You can get past these initial reactions by setting goals for what you wish to improve, then plan how you will achieve them. It may be how you present yourself, or how you use your voice or how you activate people around you.

Go to the page in Conductor Education for more details.

Roland Yeung, November 2012